Covaxgate

Last updated
Covaxgate
Covaxin.jpg
Ampoule of Covaxin
Native name Caso Covaxin
DateJune 16, 2021 (2021-06-16)
Time(UTC−3)
Duration2 years, 4 months and 22 days
Location Brazil
Also known asCovaxgate
TypeAlleged overbilling of 20 million doses of Covaxin vaccine by members of the Brazilian government

The Case Covaxin, [1] also known as Covaxgate, [2] refers to an investigation made by the Brazilian Federal Public Ministry (MPF), held on June 16, 2021, [3] which found evidence of irregularities in the purchase of 20 million doses by the Ministry of Health of the Indian vaccine Covaxin, with the value of the vaccines 1000% higher than initially foreseen. [4]

Contents

The Prosecutor General of the Republic has also asked to investigate whether President Jair Bolsonaro committed the crime of misfeasance, for allegedly failing to report to investigative bodies evidence of corruption in the negotiations to purchase the vaccine. [5]

Investigation

An investigation by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), conducted on June 16, 2021, found evidence of irregularities in the purchase of 20 million doses of the vaccine through the pharmaceutical company Precisa Medicamentos, with the value of the vaccines 1000% higher than the initial value shown initially by Bharat Biotech six months earlier. [6] On June 29, the contract for the purchase of the vaccine was suspended by the Ministry of Health after "controversies". [7]

Miranda brothers

Table of COVID-19 CPI on May 4, 2021 CPIPANDEMIA - Comissao Parlamentar de Inquerito da Pandemia (51157522716).jpg
Table of COVID-19 CPI on May 4, 2021

On Friday, June 25, 2021, Congressman Luis Miranda (DEM-DF) and his brother, Luis Ricardo Miranda, a civil servant at the Ministry of Health, were heard at the COVID-19 CPI. [8] The Miranda brothers said that the contract for the purchase of the Indian vaccine Covaxin was agenda. During testimony, Ricardo Miranda refuted Onyx Lorenzoni's accusations. [9] After suspecting corruption in the Covaxin purchase, the congressman and the civil servant claim that they would have met with President Bolsonaro. [10]

Brazilian Supreme Court

On July 2, 2021, the Prosecutor General of the Republic asked the Supreme Federal Court to open an inquiry to investigate Bolsonaro for the possible crime of misfeasance in the Covaxin vaccine overbilling case, in a development of the investigations carried out by the COVID-19 CPI. [11]

Search and seizure warrants

By determination of the STF minister Dias Toffoli and appreciated by the COVID-19 CPI, the Federal Police searched the headquarters of Precisa Medicamentos in São Paulo. The vaccine contract, already cancelled, is also investigated by the Federal Audit Court and the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office. [12]

Covaxin

Covaxin (or BBV152) is a vaccine against COVID-19 produced in India by the Bharat Biotech laboratory. [13] In January 2021, Precisa Med signed a contract with Bharat Biotech to supply Covaxin in Brazil. [14]

It was one of the first to be used in the world for emergency vaccination and would be one of the vaccines applied by Brazil, where it would be produced in partnership with Precisa Medicamentos, and the Ministry of Health estimated to use it in February 2021. [15] [16] On February 5, 2021, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) announced that it had received an application to study the vaccine in Brazil. [17]

On February 26 the Government of Brazil announced that it would buy 20 million doses of the Indian Covaxin vaccine. [18]

Sanitary risk

On March 30, 2021, Anvisa announced that it had denied the manufacturer the Good Manufacturing Practices Certificate due to "health risk to users," having found, after an inspection of Bharat in India, "non-conformities, being three critical, 12 major and 14 minor, which together denote a significant risk to manufacturing and quality assurance of the product." [19] [20]

Approval

The vaccine was approved for emergency use at the end of February 2021. [21]

COVID-19: emergency release (January 2021)
Vacinal candidate

(developer/financier)

Current situationEffectivenessCountry of originTechnologyTesting phase; number of participantsAdverse effectsReferences and notes
Covaxin or BBV152

(Bharat Biotech)

Released for emergency use [22] 81%IndiaInactivated virusPhase 3 closed; 25,800 participantsCommon: pain at the injection site, headache, fatigue and fever [23] [24] [25]

Note 1: the vaccine was released in India before data from phase 2 trials

Note 2: in Brazil it would be produced in partnership with Precisa Medicamentos Archived 2021-09-17 at the Wayback Machine

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinovac Biotech</span> Chinese biopharmaceutical company

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olavo de Carvalho</span> Brazilian right-wing polemicist (1947–2022)

Olavo Luiz Pimentel de Carvalho was a Brazilian polemicist, self-proclaimed philosopher, political pundit, former astrologer, journalist, and far-right conspiracy theorist. From 2005 until his death, he lived near Richmond, Virginia, in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corruption in Brazil</span> Institutional corruption in the country

Corruption in Brazil exists on all levels of society from the top echelons of political power to the smallest municipalities. Operation Car Wash showed central government members using the prerogatives of their public office for rent-seeking activities, ranging from political support to siphoning funds from state-owned corporation for personal gain. Mensalão for example was the practice of transferring taxpayer funds as monthly allowances to members of congress from other political parties in consideration for their support and votes in congress. Politicians used the state-owned and state-run oil company Petrobras to raise hundreds of millions of reais for political campaigns and personal enrichment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simone Tebet</span> Brazilian lawyer, professor, writer, and politician

Simone Nassar Tebet is a Brazilian academic, lawyer, and politician who has served as the Brazilian Minister of Planning and Budget since 5 January 2023. She previously was Senator for Mato Grosso do Sul from 2015 to 2023, Vice-Governor of Mato Grosso do Sul from 2011 to 2014, and mayor of Três Lagoas from 2005 to 2010. A member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), of which she was the leader in the Senate from 2018 to 2019, Tebet was the MDB candidate for president in the 2022 Brazilian general election, placing third with 4.16% of the vote. After endorsing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in the second round, Tebet was appointed Minister of Planning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">João Doria</span> Brazilian politician, businessman, and journalist

João Agripino da Costa Doria Júnior is a Brazilian politician, businessman and journalist who served as Governor of São Paulo, from January 2019 to March 2022. He previously served as the 52nd Mayor of São Paulo from 1 January 2017 to his resignation on 6 April 2018. He was the first mayor in 24 years to be elected in the first round. Doria was a member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), and is known for having hosted the TV show O Aprendiz, a Brazilian version of The Apprentice. Doria resigned the office of mayor in April 2018 to run for Governor of São Paulo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidency of Jair Bolsonaro</span> Brazilian governmental presidency

The presidency of Jair Bolsonaro started on January 1, 2019, when he was inaugurated as the 38th president of Brazil, and ended on December 31, 2022, with the inauguration of the cabinet of Lula da Silva III on January 1, 2023. He was elected the president of Brazil on October 28, 2018, by obtaining 55.1% of the valid votes in the 2018 Brazilian general election, defeating Fernando Haddad. On October 30, 2022, Bolsonaro was defeated by Lula da Silva. In the years Brazil has been a democracy since 1985, Bolsonaro became the first president to lose an election as an incumbent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraham Weintraub</span>

Abraham Bragança de Vasconcellos Weintraub is a Brazilian economist and investment banker who served as Brazil's Minister of Education from 2019 to 2020. He served as the Executive Director for the World Bank from the 15th district from 2020 to 2022, when he resigned his post in order to run in the 2022 São Paulo gubernatorial election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil</span> Ongoing COVID-19 viral pandemic in Brazil

The COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil has resulted in 37,721,749 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 704,659 deaths. The virus was confirmed to have spread to Brazil on 25 February 2020, when a man from São Paulo who had traveled to Italy tested positive for the virus. The disease had spread to every federative unit of Brazil by 21 March. On 19 June 2020, the country reported its one millionth case and nearly 49,000 reported deaths. One estimate of under-reporting was 22.62% of total reported COVID-19 mortality in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bharat Biotech</span> Indian multinational biotechnology company and vaccine manufacturer

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Covaxin</span> Vaccine against COVID-19

Covaxin is a whole inactivated virus-based COVID-19 vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research - National Institute of Virology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 in Brazil</span> Brazil-related events during the year of 2021

Events in the year 2021 in Brazil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Brazilian protests</span> Demonstrations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

The 2021 Brazilian protests were popular demonstrations that took place in different regions of Brazil in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Protests both supporting and opposing the government happened.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccine Maitri</span> Vaccination initiative by the Indian government

Vaccine Maitri is a humanitarian initiative undertaken by the Indian government to provide COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world. The government started providing vaccines from 20 January 2021. As of 21 February 2022, India had delivered around 16.29 crore doses of vaccines to 96 countries. Of these, 1.43 crore doses were gifted to 98 countries by the Government of India. The remaining 10.71 crore were supplied by the vaccine producers under its commercial and 4.15 crore were supplied by COVAX obligations. In late March 2021, the Government of India temporarily froze exports of the Covishield, citing India's own COVID crisis and the domestic need for these vaccines. The Health Minister of India, Mansukh Mandaviya announced in September that India will resume the export of vaccines from October to the rest of the world.

iNCOVACC Vaccine candidate against COVID-19

iNCOVACC is an intranasal COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by Bharat Biotech, American company Precision Virologics and the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 CPI</span> Brazilian parliamentary commission of inquiry

The COVID-19 CPI, also known as Pandemic CPI, Coronavirus CPI, or simply COVID CPI, was a parliamentary inquiry commission from Brazil, with the goal to investigate alleged omissions and irregularities in federal government actions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. It was created on April 13, 2021 and officially installed in the Brazilian Senate on April 27, 2021. It ended with the voting of the final report on October 26, 2021.

Krishna Ella is an Indian scientist and entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of Bharat Biotech where he is also a Managing Director. Ella and his company were responsible for developing India's own COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 vaccination in Brazil</span> Plan to immunize against COVID-19

The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Brazil is an ongoing mass immunization campaign for the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. It started on January 17, 2021, when the country had 210 thousand deaths.

Auxílio Brasil was the social welfare program of the Government of Brazil, created during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro. Announced in October 2021, the provisional measure was sanctioned by Bolsonaro after passing through both legislative houses on 30 December 2021, replacing Bolsa Família. However, after Lula's reelection as president of Brazil in 2022, he declared that he would rename the program to Bolsa Família, putting an end to Auxílio Brasil.

In the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic, several lines of research targeted the development of a pharmaceutical treatment or cure for the disease. One of those researches involved a clinical trial that took place in Brazil and was led by Brazilian endocrinologist Flávio Cadegiani.

References

  1. ↑ "Caso Covaxin: Senadora aponta falsificação em documento usado pelo governo Bolsonaro" (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2021-07-06. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  2. ↑ "Randolfe promete novos documentos para provar a corrupção do Covaxgate" (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2021-06-28. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  3. ↑ Caroline Oliveira (2021-06-29). "Caso Covaxin: o que se sabe até agora?" (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  4. ↑ Rachel Vargas; Gustavo Uribe (2021-06-22). "Documentos apontam que governo comprou vacina indiana por valor 1000% maior" . Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  5. ↑ "PGR pede investigação sobre prevaricação de Bolsonaro na compra da Covaxin" (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2021-07-02. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  6. ↑ Globo, Agência O. (2021-06-24). "Entenda a cronologia da compra superfaturada da Covaxin pelo Governo Bolsonaro". iG (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-06-27.
  7. ↑ "Ministério da Saúde suspende contrato de compra da vacina Covaxin". CNN Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  8. ↑ "Em 4 pontos, entenda o caso da Covaxin e dos irmãos Miranda". CNN Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2021-06-25. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  9. ↑ "Miranda: informações contradizem "governo sem corrupção"". Terra (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  10. ↑ Povo, Correio do (25 June 2021). "Irmãos Miranda relatam à CPI pressão e suspeitas de corrupção na compra da Covaxin". Correio do Povo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  11. ↑ "PGR pede abertura de inquérito para investigar Bolsonaro por prevaricação no caso Covaxin". G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2021-06-19. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  12. ↑ "PF faz operação em sede da Precisa Medicamentos em SP, empresa que entrou na mira da CPI da COVID". G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 17 September 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  13. ↑ "Bharat Biotech (COVAXIN)". precisamedicamentos (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-02-04.[ permanent dead link ]
  14. ↑ "Bharat Biotech inks pact with Precisa Med to supply Covaxin to Brazil". mint. 2021-01-12.
  15. ↑ "Ministério da Saúde negocia na próxima sexta-feira (5) aquisição de 30 milhões de doses das vacinas Sputinik V e Covaxin". Ministério da Saúde (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  16. ↑ "Laboratório anuncia testes da Covaxin no Brasil em parceria com Einstein". www.uol.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  17. ↑ "Anvisa recebe pedido de estudo da vacina Covaxin no Brasil". Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2021-02-05. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  18. ↑ "Covid-19: no Brasil, governo assina contrato para compra de 20 milhões de doses da vacina indiana Covaxin – Wikinotícias". pt.wikinews.org (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-02-28.
  19. ↑ "Anvisa publica decisões sobre pedidos de CBPF". Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária – Anvisa (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2021-03-30. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  20. ↑ "Anvisa nega certificação de boas práticas a empresa fabricante da Covaxin, vacina da Índia para Covid-19". G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 30 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
  21. ↑ Ritchie, Hannah; Mathieu, Edouard; Rodés-Guirao, Lucas; Appel, Cameron; Giattino, Charlie; Ortiz-Ospina, Esteban; Hasell, Joe; MacDonald, Bobbie; Beltekian, Diana; Roser, Max (5 March 2020). "Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations – Statistics and Research". Our World in Data. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  22. ↑ "Alvo da rede privada no Brasil, vacina indiana Covaxin gera críticas por aprovação apressada". BBC News Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-01-04.
  23. ↑ "Vacina desenvolvida na Índia gera resposta imunológica, diz estudo". www.uol.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  24. ↑ Ella, Raches; Vadrevu, Krishna Mohan; Jogdand, Harsh; Prasad, Sai; Reddy, Siddharth; Sarangi, Vamshi; Ganneru, Brunda; Sapkal, Gajanan; Yadav, Pragya (2021-01-21). "Safety and immunogenicity of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, BBV152: a double-blind, randomised, phase 1 trial". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 21 (5): 637–646. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30942-7. ISSN   1473-3099. PMC   7825810 . PMID   33485468.
  25. ↑ "Vacina Covaxin apresenta eficácia de 81%, diz laboratório indiano". Agência Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2021-03-03. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.